Every
year during the lunar month of Ashwin/Kartik, Hindus observe ten days
of ceremonies, rituals, fasts and feasts in honour of the supreme mother
goddess; while it is known by different names, this is one of the few
festivals celebrated across India.

In
the north, the first nine days of the festival—known as Navaratri,
‘nine nights’—are observed as a rigorous fast. In Gujarat
this time is the occasion for two special dances. Gorba (‘womb’)
is a graceful dance that women perform around a lamp contained within
the ‘womb’ of a pot, a way of honouring the goddess who is
mother to the fire of life in us all. The dandia is a complex
dance performed by both men and women holding sticks festooned with bells
that they strike against those of their partner in increasingly frenzied
rhythms.

In
Bengal the eighth day of Navaratri is known as Durga Puja.
Durga means ‘inaccessible’, the goddess perceived
as the personification of the shakti (‘divine energy’)
of Lord Shiva. Huge structures called pandals are constructed and decorated
to house communal services and celebrations. On the final day an earthen
statue of Durga is taken in procession to a nearby river, where it is
ceremonially immersed and given a passionate send-off, marking the return
of the goddess to her home on Mount Kailash after her brief visit to Earth.

In
the south the final day of the festival is observed as Dussehra
(‘tenth’), during which the triumph of good over evil is celebrated
in mythic terms as the death of the demon king Ravana. Huge effigies of
Ravana are burned amidst the cacophany of fireworks.